


We want our mommy cat back

by Miss_Mei



Series: SCI mystery abo au [3]
Category: S.C.I.谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Mpreg, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Tags Are Hard, love and affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:41:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26284369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Mei/pseuds/Miss_Mei
Summary: Zhan Yao wants to attend a criminal psychology conference in America, at the famed home of the behavioural analysis unit in Quantico, Virginia, except he hasn't actually been abroad since he accidentally mated with his childhood friend and loving husband Bai Yutong.Said husband is of course worried about how the cat will survive without his daily care, and remember to live like a human among a hundred or so clones of lone Zhan Yao. It doesn't help that they have been trying for child no.5, and the pyschologist is known to not have the best relationship with his own body, only realising that he was expecting his last litter when his clothes didn't fit.Will the ever cautious husband let his possibly pregnant mommy cat go for a week unattended in a far away country?Enjoy my crap description of emotions, with a sprinkle of comedic Gongsun and chaotic Jintang raising their multiples of children (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
Relationships: Bái Jǐntáng/Gōngsūn Cè, Bái Yùtáng/Zhǎn Zhāo
Series: SCI mystery abo au [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917268
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Although I can't show the amount of chapters yet, I think there's another part coming, if my word count is what I expect and splits in half. I just love SCI too much to delay publishing this when it's not finished

Zhan Yao, everyone's beloved pretty mommy kitty, had been solely living with his husband, Bai Yutong, the white mouse police chief, and their four children for years without leaving the country at all. He loved to stay as close to home as possible, so he did not have to worry about anything, as Yutong took care of meals, driving him everywhere in his super fast sports car, and kept him generally healthy and safe, which he would struggle to do on his own. Would he think of eating a balanced diet, taking the bitter traditional Chinese medicine that kept his potential heart problems at bay, sleep for at least eight hours a day and take breaks in between his many daily tasks? Hell no, it was a wonder back in the day if he managed to eat twice a day and get a few naps squeezed between his teaching job, further study and work at SCI, let alone try and prolong his life.

That was why Bai Yutong, the one who had witnessed how unconsciously self neglectful his husband could be, was worried when he got asked if he could take a week off to attend a psychology conference in Virginia, America, in a few months time. Virginia was the home of the behavioural analysis unit, and the conference material Zhan Yao could come back with would help them catch criminals more effectively in Hong Kong, plus get together with hundreds of other Zhan Yao clones and talk about crazy people's brains. However, aside from the concern that he was possibly due a heat, and even his brother did not advise suddenly taking a week's worth of business trip suppressants, when he had not taken any suppressants since his deflowering a whole four years ago, there was more to his worries. 

He and Yutong had also been planning to have another child, now that they were settled in the bigger house, the bunch of quadruplets were all fairly independent for children and had been put into the local school. For the last two heats, Bai Yutong had made the time to screw his cat into oblivion in the hope that they could catch whatever signs of pregnancy as soon as the heat was over. They did not want a repeat of the last pregnancy discovery, a sudden trip to Zhan Yao's doctor friend when he thought he might have been dying, because that way, both husbands were more involved in the process, something Yutong wanted to do the second time around.

Bao Sir and the father's were set up as the unbiased mediators, or so they were supposed to be, but both Bao Sir and doctor Zhan senior thought that letting Zhan Yao go to America as the representative psychologist of Hong Kong was actually a great idea! His father in law, who had always felt that Yutong held his son back after Zhan Yao turned down the study in the US to be an active member of the then new police department SCI, had just about come to terms with the last offer that was turned down, but started to cling to the idea of his only son working with the internationally recognised BAU for a second time. A relatively unbiased mediator should have been Bao Sir, however due to the nature of his job, he agreed that maybe it would not be such a terrible idea to send someone to learn from the American equivalent of their job, so he did not help poor Yutong.

Bai senior did a good job of taking his side, and spent an hour talking about how for a rising star like the young Zhan, who had not just achieved national fame for his work in psychology, but for being the most balanced professional with his husband and kids at home, could wait a few years before completing devoting his time to his job. "He still has time for being a higher qualified psychologist Qitian, but what if Yao needs Yutong in Virginia and my son is too busy to fly there? My wife would never have complained about me being at work, yet I am sure she would have preferred being a family more, and we only had Jintang and A-Yu to look after. They have four in kindergarten still, and one or more in the works if the last heats were successful, so you should not pressure A-Yao to take the offer right away.", the old white mouse reasoned, or tried to reason with his two hard headed friends. His son sighed, knowing that even if he had his father to support his claims of worry, two respected seniors and his stubborn cat could not be swayed.

Zhan Yao was eating leftover chili lobster from the bento box preparation, his latest extravagant taste, and surprisingly sudden onset phase in food that Bai Yutong was happy to indulge in as long as he ate it, while marking student essays for university. He had worked out that if his picky cat was not interested enough to eat certain food while he worked, he tended not to eat at all unless his husband physically pulled him away from his piles of either lesson planning, marking or case files and dragged him to the big table. None of their children had the terrible appetite of his cat thankfully, and ate the table of dishes with plenty of rice without needing to be told to eat, and he partly wished that Zhan Yao was carrying another multiple of babies, so he was hungry again to eat properly. His eldest son pulled him out of a terrible situation he was daydreaming, by asking when they were next seeing uncle Gongsun, aunt Jintang and the three Ce children, as their kids were quite attached to the three similarly aged troublemakers. 

Yutong, Yao, Chang, Cong, Gang and Jin all bundled into the white Subaru that mother Bai, mother Zhan and the rest of the family had furiously traded stocks and sold shares to buy in time for their fourth anniversary. With eight seats, the two mates were getting the message that they wanted more grandchildren than they admitted to, since the omega only planned for six in his life calculations, but as long as it meant getting to keep the white Lamborghini, for work as Yutong insisted as he protectively polished the hood, anything was possible. They were driving to Jintang's new house, the fact that he could afford another enormous house on his income was no shock to his little brother when he got the housewarming party invitation, and the quads wanted to go, even if it meant sitting quietly while the adults talked about family business and possibly needing to stay over for a night. 

It was also a good opportunity to talk to Zhan Yao about him going to America without his father there to remind him of how important it was to take advantage of the opportunity, and settle the matter in time for the cat to agree to the sponsored trip or make his excuses. Thinking about his earlier defense of how Zhan Yao needed to be at home and have his husband take care of him, he was feeling slightly bad, like he did when he was too tough interrogating a suspect. His cat had just as much right to advance his career knowledge as he did, and if they meant sending his love off with a smile to talk about criminal thought processes and all that gory stuff with other professionals, then it was as necessary as Yutong spending hours having lessons on new defence tactics. As long as he still checked up on him, not much could go wrong, or so he thought rather optimistically.

Despite being married to the creepy doctor, his big brother had not lost his eye for style and sharp senses, as was evident when he opened the door in a long blue silk evening gown, matching silky heel slippers with a sapphire choker, and immediately raised his nose at the omega. Before Yutong could offer a question disguised as a compliment, Jintang flipped his hair fabulously and explained why he was looking like a glamorous housewife, like it was completely normal conversation. It was not, and no one wished they had even looked when he started to tell them about Gongsun's royal blue dress kink, luckily after his husband had left the slippered children away into the large lounge to watch some loud cartoons with the other three, Ming, Jing and Ling. A glimpse at the cat's face naturally screamed that he did not want to know, and he much regretted popping his head round to find out the big secret that was worth talking about.

(Jintang did once complain that his alpha was not very creative with names, he had only asked his husband to give names to his three newborns, because the nurses were asking him and he was in no state to do so, while he was sleeping off the postoperative exhaustion. It never crossed his mind that his first kids would end up with samey cartoon character names, so he could not say he was prepared for the terrible naming.)

"Like you have a thing for Zhan Yao in that red night robe, my husband has some kind of a kink for me dressing in royal blue silk and after our wedding, he developed a big kink, or whatever I call his thing for evening gowns, so this kind of dress occasionally turns up on my side of the walk in closet. I tend not to question anything he gives me, if you want a heads up, he probably wants to christen the bed tonight and maybe produce more children.", Jintang explained casually, like he was not spilling the secrets of his sex life.  
The idea did not sound completely wacky, but at the same time, he was not exactly lining up to know that, and Yutong was going to join his family in the lounge when Jintang tapped him on the shoulder, with a Bejeweled finger, "Your pretty kitty is hiding something from you or he has no idea himself yet, but he is more than one person right now. The scents have not mixed yet, that is why you do not know."

The revelation froze the big white mouse, and if he was not hauled into the kitchen to help cook by Gongsun, he probably would have stood there until he blurted out what he was thinking. His mate again had no idea, and it was going to put him in an awkward situation, stuck between protecting his pups and letting Zhan Yao fulfill what had turned into a dream week away. He had months to himself, so it would be selfish to deny his love some fun when 7 days of their marriage was a tiny amount of time compared to the rest of their lives together.

Alpha Yutong stayed so quiet at dinner with Gongsun and Jintang, even Zhan Yao outnumbered his total word count, which was nearly impossible for the cat who permanently lost his tongue unless he had to talk or wanted to. Jintang had been chatting about how their three kids were going to kindergarten soon, and how he was going to feel sending his precious babies off to schooling so soon, probably a strategic plan of some kind to get his brother in law to realise his own pregnancy, yet his beautiful Zhan Yao was incredibly dense. The food was going to do the job instead, because with his second pregnancy, he was experiencing fairly routine symptoms including food aversion to his second favourite meat, wagyu beef from the cattle raised on the organic Bai farm.

For the first time, the doctor did not want his but husband's famous Bai family salt beef and nearly vomited. "Mì táng, I think I need to talk to you in private after dinner, he whispered to Yutong, "Cong-er, share the beef between your brother's fairly, tonight Baba does not want any.", Zhan Yao asked his second eldest quietly, but not quiet enough for sharp ears not to notice." His brother in law carefully helped the quadruplets distribute the extra bowl of salt beef that was always put aside for him, and replaced it with a larger bowl of sweet and sour fish from the centre of the circular dining table, giving him a nudge to eat what he wanted. Now, after being betrayed by his own nose and the best dish he had ever tasted until five minutes ago, the catty physiologist was just as silent as his white mouse, seriously thinking if it was a good idea to leave for America when he was now preggo and honestly worried about his health.

After dinner tea and the opportunity to walk around the sizable garden provided the perfect opportunity to discuss their grown up problems, and Bai Jintang's seventh sense tactfully lured the quadruplets and the triplets away so it was easier to give the young Bai family more room. Zhan Yao was the first to crack, putting his delicate cup of jasmine tea on a nearby bench, as he sank gracefully into a garden chair, because people with the thin and flexible figure of a cat could do that apparently and feel completely comfortable. "I have come to the sudden realisation that we succeeded in making our second batch, when I offered the children my salted beef and your brother encouraged me to have sparkling fruit juice instead of his vintage red, but at the same time, I really wanted to go to Virginia this time. Help me, do I chose to wait until another time or go away pregnant?", he announced, sounding genuinely stuck between choices

Yutong felt his heart ache as he did when he discovered how insecure Zhan Yao was about his post baby body, because after his own silent dinner, he realised he wanted his mate to start doing more activity outside his home life, even if the psychologist version of socialising was going to other countries to study the minds of terrible people. In the last four years while they raised the quadruplets with the help of their family, he had done extensive teaching of police defence classes and opened up a new academy in Kowloon, but his husband had stuck to developing his status in the world of breakthrough studies of the criminal mind. It was time for the rest of the world, well, the larger than expected world of creepy criminal translators, to see the real face of doctor Zhan, genius omega psychologist and mother cat to the Bai-Zhan clan.

"I think that if it's only for a week, I should let you go. You have stayed national for years cat, and if it was me having the offer of what could be a grab of international fame, do you think I would say no? If I send you with the full supplements and remind you to eat and take your medicine, then I would think you will be fine without me babying you for a week. I do not wish to ever hold you back, in any way, so I have to encourage you to go to the US.", the white mouse replied softly. The smile on Zhan Yao's face was priceless, and they accidentally broke a cup in the rush to kiss like a couple of teenagers that had not snogged for a week. When Yutong was not touching up his husband's butt, he instinctually went down to nose Zhan Yao's middle, proudly scenting his omega and pups through the jersey of his casual turtleneck neck. 

Gongsun was anxious, being given the job of making sure his two bosses were not screwing the hokey pokey out of each other in the garden, or the neighbors might complain, Jintang said, clicking the little kitten heel of his blue silk slippers to make his incredibly sexy point. If they did not need to work, he would have lived his whole life happily staying at home as the house husband, with the piles of children they could make, but it was better they did not, because three children were difficult enough at times like this. "Boss, deputy, xiao Tang said not to have sex in his garden! Also, come in soon, you will both get colds in this chill, especially the little chilli cat and his baby cat.", Gongsun called, more like he hissed the words at the two love birds. 

With one of Yutong's big hands on Zhan Yao's small and Jintang sized waist, the scene was so cute, the creepy doctor was stuck between wishing to be able to do that that to his own sultry omega and enjoy the process of conception till birth, or what he looked forward to the most, making the baby on their new bed, and possibly some other places around the house. He had no idea he started to drool and growl in his sex laced thoughts, which was more traumatic for the unfortunately placed spectators than him. Getting married was definitely worth the wedding costs when it tied him to the most attractive cretin in the world.

Yutong had passed his daydreaming brother in law and carried his husband to the lounge where he knew there was snacks, their quadruplets, and one less crazy sex maniac to worry about, judging by the saliva and growls from Gongsun's aplha. Jintang slinked in with one of his triplets on his silk clad hip, grinning like he did when he was about to say "I told you so" to his little brother, but clearly restrained that urge to make the point that they had already guessed. Between his network mad brother and an introverted surgeon, the SCi team always said that hell would come to those around them with their combined skills or ferocious arguments, yet they seemed to argue rarely and a good marriage. His own marriage was less simple sometimes, but he knew the cat well enough to understand anything and his cat knew him too well to misunderstand to the point of major relationship problems. Like now, when he had a sleepy Zhan Yao buckled in the front seat of the Subaru, their four farm animals in the back row of seats, and was saying a civilised good-bye to his brother and his family.  
Family surely did not get more perfect than he had, even if it was not simple 100% of the time.

In two quiet neighborhoods, two quiet mornings began. The morning that we will focus on is that of the six person and one pup family, the Bai-Zhan clan, which was very slow and easy to live with. Bai Yutong had woken up at dawn to go for his morning run, have a shower before his wife- oops husband and kids hogged the bathroom and made a big breakfast for his growing family. Chang usually ended up waking his brothers one by one with his enthusiastic reenactment of a military drill that no one had the heart to tell him was not how they went, and the mommy cat stumbled out of bed eight to ten hours after he had got to bed, which was variable sometimes. "Baba, is it true mommy Mao has a baby now? Aunt Jintang said he had a baby in his belly, and he will eat all our lobsters, if he is not sleeping or catching bad people, but I worry that we will not have enough lobsters left in China after a year. Mommy likes lobsters a lot, so does the rest of China and the whole world." Cong asked curiously. 

Yutong almost laughed at how his older brother had managed to convince his sons that pregnancy was like a caterpillar building a cocoon, mommy would eat all the lobsters, get fat and pop out the baby, but young minds were innocent. If his children could remain clueless and think mommy was a caterpillar, rather than witness the horrendous food cravings, clothes meltdowns and the maternity leave war that was bad enough to fight last time he had more reason on his side, it was better than seeing the truth. "Mommy will be kind of like a caterpillar, but never say he gets fat or moody, that is not wise and aunty Jintang should have explained more. Baba will take care of mommy, and at the end of the year, you will have a new sibling or two to play with.", the big white mouse replied tactfully, putting more fish on Cong's rice to shut him up. 

(In the other not so peaceful house, Bai Jintang woke up enough to throw the odd silk slipper and a scrap of White stained, royal blue dress on the floor, then sneezed loudly. Gongsun did not move, face down and snoring into a pillow after a through night of heated sex, but he did later say it was as if someone was talking about him. A little more later, when they had cleaned up enough to be presentable, Jintang whacked his lazy alpha with the left blue silk slipper and continued to try and scrub jizz out of their new carpet, while one half of the problem laid in the fresh bed and looked at baby names. Gongsun was getting at least half of diaper duty this time round, especially if they had more than one, and potentially replacing the carpet too.)

He was starting to get anxious about his husband sleeping because he was sick, but when he thought about going to manually pick the cat up to bring him to breakfast, Zhan Yao appeared in the hallway. May the good lord Pangu give him, the still great not godly Bai Zhan Yutong the strength to resist, because his sexy psychologist was dressed in the legendary red kimono negligee, and was pushing hair out of his eyes like a male maxim model probably did, yet there was children around, so he could not go feral and drag his minx back to bed for hours. "Lobster. Chilli lobster and coffee…. Mmm.", Zhan Yao mumbled sleeping, and Yutong had to laugh at the childish nature of the dead cat. Before becoming close again with the man, Yutong had to wonder how he functioned like a normal human with such unpredictable sleep routines and shocking diet of take out when he remembered to eat.

"No coffee for you Mama! Baba and Auntie say no coffee for mommy caterpillars, you have to have milk for the baby or juice, or the babies will not be healthy like the ones uncle creepy will give auntie after they- oof", Chang piped up. Both Yutong and Yao reached over to shut him up when they heard bad sex education coming out of his mouth, and felt like maybe Jintang was not the best person to leave their kids with, but they had to leave the quads somehow, and it was not like Gongsun was any better. The man was randomly drooling and growling throughout the day, and although they never said in front of the kids, he had on off boners every time he looked at his husband in that damn dress, which was a horrifying kink story before they saw how true it was. Ah well school would cover sex ed soon enough, no need to cause more trouble with their existing children when more were on the way.


	2. Pining for each others love, but not really pining because they are already married

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can the cat and mouse handle separation like they thought they could? Nope, and can any Bai family member do something without attracting international attention- no again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to publish this last night, but part of my sleepy brain was too lazy to deal with summaries and notes after 11pm. Ah well, enjoy another installment of Jintang fixes Yutong's relationship and moans about his own husband, even though he loves Gongsun really and the piles of children they have from their wild sex life

Zhan Yao took his regular vitamins, preggo vitamins and washed the pills down with a glass of milk like it was a normal occurrence, while eating two bowls of rice and a bowl of red snapper in vinegar. That satisfied even his anxious husband, who knew how many calories the dead cat burned in a day and how he did not eat enough calories to gain weight, and may have privately consulted the lovely obgyne doctor Haoxuan on exactly how much he should feed his omega mommy a day. Since there were no obvious lumps, even when the cat wore his favorite navy fitted suits, Yutong assumed he was either very early on or having less than four this time, therefore needed a different amount of extra fuel. 

"Xiao Bai, I think I will drop by Haoxuan at lunch time to get a quick examination in between the court trial for Chen Wu and the evaluation at the mental asylum on my schedule. I will tell you everything after we get home okay?", kitty announced calmly. How anyone could stay calm while rearranging a busy schedule of important work to make room for a hospital trip was above his level of understanding, but he did want to know exactly what they had managed to miss, and what to prepare for a week away in another country to ensure that his husband was healthy, a bit in advance, but being prepared was not a bad thing. How did he miss the signs of pregnancy when he literally lived with his husband? Sure, Zhan Yao's normal eating habits were basically cravings, so ignoring the lobster craze was explainable, the subtle change in his scent was barely noticeable when he was surrounded by four additional different scents every day, and the soft, flat abdomen of his cat was not changing. Ever since he could, the psychology professor lived in many ways like he was constantly preggo, having some naturally strange tastes and daily antics, like enjoying the act of burrowing under their blankets to sleep, but he used to do that anyway. Aiya, it was no wonder he never noticed the extremely small differences!

The beloved doctor Haoxuan was about to leave for lunch, when his old pal Dr Zhan appeared in his office. "Good day Dr Zhan, I see that your lock picking hobby is still as sharp as back in med school.", he greeted cheerfully.  
The grinning cat waltzed into the exam room, "I have a full psychological evaluation to carry out in an hour, and then I need to go home to eat more of my husband's delicious cooking while my children tell me about school for the hundredth time. I believe that I am pregnant, have no idea how long I have been, how many pups or anything else really. Yutong already started cutting my coffee and alcohol off, and would be happy if I got prenatal supplements as soon as convenient to be horribly honest." The obgyne felt his jaw drop at the shock and stupidity of a supposedly smart man, yet his job was to sort this kind of mess out, so he had no reason to complain.

During the quickest ultrasound, blood tests and ECG in the history of hospitals, Zhan Yao learned to not put Bai Yutong on speaker, because the man was too anxious for his own good. He should have been the nervous one when he was having his ultrasound, not his husband, and the echocardiogram nearly killed him, but why did it bother him so much? If his heart was under strain, Haoxuan would chain his old buddy old pal to a bed and force him to rest, not that he had to, because he had a perfectly healthy heart rhythm and an equally happy pup. When Zhan Yao was getting back in his three piece suit, and waited for the paper results, plus nutrition advice since his alpha was a worrywart, he got scolded for not noticing he was pregnant. "I do not believe I have ever met such a forgetful omega, and your poor husband must be going grey with worry at this point. Thank God you barely drink alcohol and live on what Yutong cooks for you, or you might be dead before you hit thirty.", he whinged, but really, he was just glad to see his catty psychologist more than once every five years. 

"Just tell me what happened when I drive by the mental asylum to pick you up, we still have to tell the kids about the baby even if you told me, and messaged the whole family. I love you, and I'm really happy, but do not love strangers hearing everything that I should only know.", the alpha said on the phone to his excited omega hubby. Zhan Yao. He was excited that his husband was excited, but the waiting area of the local loony bin was not particularly the place he wanted the world to known his business, especially when Zhan Yao was going to America in mere days, he was told that the offer had been officially accepted as of earlier that day, and as the concerned Bai Yutong, he had to micromanage everything in as little time as humanly possible to calm his anxiety, way ahead of the summer flight. Which was fully possible, he just needed to make a trip to the grocery store, pick out some more healthy than usual instant food, go to the pharmacy for a travel size bottle of the potent vitamin supplements he always made sure the cat took when he could forget to eat, even on a regular day. No one could say that the skinny feline was ever going to suffer from malnutrition on his watch at least.

They picked the quadruplets up from mother Zhan, who was teaching the small children the hormone cycles of the human body and how hormones affect the psyche, and went home, with a couple of bags of groceries that got put straight in the large wheelie suitcase laid on the floor of the spare room next to the master bedroom. Zhan Yao had put a week's worth of smart clothes in, the big clothes of course that would pass as more flattering to fit his pregnant self, a few pairs of nice pajamas, the basics such as socks and underwear, and ready to go in closer to the time, a ratty old t-shirt. The old shirt was Bai Yutong's favourite sleep shirt, therefore smelled just like the deep, comforting citrus and cinnamon he inhaled as he went to sleep wrapped around his mate. It was also stretched beyond normal size from him sleeping in it. He had been given a plastic bag of instant food, normal vitamins and prenatal vitamins, and told to eat something out of the bag if the hotel food was not to his liking. How did the lone psychology professor find the most perfect human to read his mind and keep him alive out of the whole population of China?

The wheelie suitcase got zipped up before dinner, and it was left under the bed so Yutong could almost forget that they had packed it in preparation for his omegas week away from his watchful eye, into a crowd of psychologists who probably knew nothing about pregnant mommy omegas. It was hard, but he had just under three months to watch his second, no, the growing egg was technically their fifth child, to comprehend life with no cat for a mere seven days. Medically, as the father he would not miss anything, babies were not developed enough to kick or move visibly until much later, but for the man who had literally grown up and due to circumstances, consequently married Zhan Yao, to not see him in the flesh was more difficult to fathom. Chang, Cong, Gang and Jin were informed about the fact that mommy was going on a trip in the future, and that he would make sure to message every day after waking up and before going to bed. For small children they were very mature, as they said that although mommy was going to be missed, it was important that he did the important trip, which was kind of what both Yutong and Zhan Yao expected from the children with a double dose of how emotionally mature they were as kids. 

Two months and three weeks went faster than anyone thought, and even father Zhan felt like his only son leaving the country now was a big deal, with a husband and four children to see off at the airport. By the time he was leaving for America, there was a slightly noticeable bulge when he stood sideways, but it was barely visible from the front or back as long as he wore a bigger size turtleneck sweater and the beautiful navy coat, partly due to the more than usual meals he was given since he confirmed that he was preggo. He did not want to leave the quadruplets behind, but he had been asleep for weeks after their birth, and that was a necessary absence like this one kind of was, to provide for his children he had to branch out in his career too. It was extremely difficult to read himself away from mother Zhan, mother Bai, Jintang, Yutong and the quadruplets to board the plane to America, but in the long run, sacrificing a week of family time would reap more awards than the sorrow of parting temporarily, and he did have the pup to keep him company. 

After seeing Zhan Yao off, or Doctor Zhan as he would be addressed by the colleagues attending the conference, which sounded quite sexy to an unhelpfully horny nugget of brain cells in his alpha brain, his mother took them back to the big house. Mother Bai could see with her sharp eyes that her little Yutong missed his cat the moment the plane took off from the airport, yet let him learn trust and endurance through the experience, because if a week was too long, it was incredibly unfair for A-Yao and his genius to be kept local. Another important lesson that had to be learned the hard way, something she wished there was a way to ease the pain of, but being apart from your soulmate was horrible regardless. Fortunately, the silken bedding of the master bed in the apartment was infinitely ingrained with Calla lily and citrus, and Zhan Yao had catnapped a thick blanket to make himself a blanket burrito of mouse smell while he slept in the ragged old t-shirt. Both men had done what was easily possible to make them be less affected by the separation, taking or indulging in heavily scented textiles, texting whenever work or the conference allowed and scheduling once a day WeChat video calls, in which Yutong and the kids told the cat about their day, then the cat told the noise about the interesting highlights of the day and if the kitten did anything unusual. 

Nothing, despite trying to use other methods to trick their bodies into thinking they slept together, was actually working for neither Zhan Yao or Yutong. Bai Yutong was slightly more on edge than he usually was at work, which made the SCI members felt like the hormonal terror of pregnant Zhan Yao had plagued them for a week, their children were droopy early enough to sometimes have to cook dinner earlier so the quadruplets ate properly, and the cat was suffering the most. Zhan Yao had a very varied sleep pattern when he lived by homely without having the unfortunate side problem of temporary pregnancy insomnia from not being with his mate, he was also expected to be fully awake during the long discussions of the criminal mind. However, the reality was that he dozed off whenever one of the more dull guests were speaking, and let his trusty voice recorder catch any helpful suggestions, and if anyone was offended by his napping, he would just say that it was normal for a mothering omega to need more sleep than a beta or alpha. He was slowly growing another human after all! 

Around day five, the psychology conference was reaching the end of all the academic conversation possible, and ended up moving towards personal lives, which most of the people attending lacked considerably. Most humans with an affinity for the criminal mind tended not to mix well with regular citizens, so at least half of the conference were single men or women of any gender, who only had a posh bachelor apartment and car to talk about. Occasionally someone had a pet cat or other small creature like a rabbit, but Zhan Yao was on a different level entirely! He had been eternally stuck to a fellow career freak, and coincidentally an alpha with very powerful spunk, and lived in a large house that could get very messy, a family home with four children, who provided much entertainment for the two. No one had expected to learn that after nearly three decades of celibacy and heat blockers, that having an accidental mating, getting four kids straight away, and making a marriage work was even possible, but he did withhold that Bai Yutong was a high ranking police employee like himself. He could have his secrets too, like his fifth child unknown to the world.

The last WeChat with Yutong had been slightly strained, that was the alpha's missing mate hormones making him extra possessive and cranky, but for the last few days communication was only messaging, which was not as comforting as seeing his husband's face on the phone with the four ducklings in the background. He still asked if Zhan Yao had taken his heart tonic, prenatal vitamins and eaten at least two meals in the course of the day, yet it lacked his usual cheesy smile and playful scolding when he admitted that he did not want to drink the bitter herbal medicine. The sad omega wondered if events like this would be the end of their marriage when he continued to share his expertise with other pyschologists abroad, and decided to not agree to any conferences outside of China to save the hurt it caused, but then he spoke to Jintang, who of course said the complete opposite and blamed his stupid brother. 

Bai Jintang was pregnant, with multiples again although the exact size of the litter was unclear at the last appointment, and wanted to whinge about alpha idiots with his brother in law one day. Gongsun had left him at home to attend a university catch up meeting at a nearby restaurant and would stay in a hotel until he was completely sober, so his fabulous lover thought that while there was no hairy perverts to ruin the shot, he would check in on his bro and how fat he was getting, but the sight of melancholy Zhan Yao made his eyes narrow suspiciously. "A-Yao? Is it a good time to talk or should I call later, I have nothing in particular to do today and Gongsun is out vomiting on someone's floor right now.", he asked in his kindest voice.  
The poor cat looked glum in the t-shirt he recognised as being his brothers once upon a time, huddled in a white blanket that came from their house too, but he tried to sound cheerful, saying that it was night time in Virginia and asking how Gongsun and the triplets were. He looked rounder, even under the huge t-shirt, but thinner in the face and visibly pale, probably from bad sleep and lack of lobster dunked in Chilli sauce. As a fellow pregnant omega, Jintang knew that instant fish congee could not replace fresh cooked cravings and warm cuddles in bed to feel cozy.

However good the cats acting was, elder Bai always got what he wanted, and that was a chance to fix whatever his brother had done, whether it was done on purpose or not, because he had waited long enough to see the two idiots get together finally, and a small argument was not a reason for divorce. It turned out that the mouse was protecting his own separation issues onto his husband, and Zhan Yao was convinced that it was him going on a work trip that was the problem, making both men think of the worst case. Even stupid Gongsun had more sense, or maybe not, because he had just walked in smelling of a hoard of unmated omega's, and he was going to have lots of questions asked while Jintang whacked him with a slipper, until he showered properly and stank of his significant other. It had worked for his mother back in the day, then he could send lots of angry messages to Yutong without worrying about competition, and please his mother omega hormones. 

After Gongsun had been tackled into the shower, doused liberally in his husband's scent and screwed into oblivion for good measure when he admitted that some of his friends had bought their omega plus ones who were a bit handsy, they cuddled in bed peacefully just as they always ended up doing if the triplets were at school or with his mother,. This time he left the cuddle early, letting the sexed up alpha snore into his pillow, because he was going to have fun. Sex with Gongsun was definitely fun, but fixing his little brother's occasional relationship issues was satisfactory in a different way. It was still office hours, however, Bai Yutong was his own boss now, and could spend an hour before the kids needed picking up to have his big brother scold him. The police chief was supposedly untouchable, yet one call from his elder brother sent Bai Yutong into a panic, and that fact would never change.

Back in the SCI office, the white mouse was so silent, that Bai Chi popped in to check on him. The call from Jintang was a horrible and necessary wake up call to how he had nearly ruined his equal marriage by failing to put on a good show when he should have, and stressed his beautiful cat out at a time he was already emotionally vulnerable ooto strain. Zhan Yao was trying to improve his reputation in psychology for the sake of earning more money and being more helpful when solving crimes, and he unknowingly put him off that dream by whining and bitching like a kid. What could he say to make up for that except from taking the private police jet to be with his husband in America? The quadruplets were on school holidays, so they could go too, and stay in the family home close to the airport, use the family jet to get around easier, spend some time familiarising themselves with the new country and go home together. 

When he agreed to take some time off to work on his marriage, his scary brother had finally let him off the phone, to pick up the children from mother Zhan and brief them on why they were going to an airplane rather than going home to eat dinner.  
If it was not for his brother, he might not even have a marriage to fix though, so it was a small inconvenience to have his mistakes pointed out and have an explanation of how to make his pretty kitty love him to pieces again. Jintang was both a curse and blessing like that, after he made it clear that he inherited his mother's habit of meddling in other people's business, so next new year he would be extra nice and give his four and more nephews or neices big red packets.

To catch a cat, you needed several important things according to Bai Yutong, who was known to have caught a prime specimen of kitty with years of patient baiting. Zhan Yao at the present desired at least three portions of lobster cooked in chilli sauce, a big squishy cuddle with his children, and a night of blissful sleep wrapped in his husband's arms, all of which were perfectly reasonable to want and easy to do in the Bai house and plane kept overseas. With his excellent pilot license and fast car, he could make it from Portsmouth to Virginia before the lobster got cold, pick up the cat from the hotel, and bundle him in the plane regardless of time. Bai Jintang had a king size bed put in the plane when he and Gongsun started to do what could have been considered dating, if dating meant annoying the other person and occasionally having a mad bout of sex to make up for it, so Zhan Yao could eat his massive amount of lobster and cuddle the quadruplets until they got back to the holiday house, which was probably close to what he would consider heaven at this point.

It was half way the second to last scheduled day in America, and Zhan Yao was sleeping in the middle of another boring lecture on why it was important to follow psychology guidelines in the pursuit of a criminal, which was not even worth recording when he heard it at every conference he had ever been to. He wanted to be home with Yutong and his children, in the custom built Hong Kong home they paid for exactly a year ago that day, and eating home cooked food in the dining room, not falling asleep in a stuffy conference room. Surely, his ever spontaneous husband would have something up his sleeve when he got home, or if he felt silly, today if he took the private police jet and came to surprise Zhan Yao in America. The white mouse was naturally impulsive to the point of being embarrassing sometimes, like when he got catnapped from his office one day to go to an expensive seafood restaurant, which would have been really sweet, but he was in the middle of a very important phone call with a famous psychology professor, who he had to apologise to after the meal. Surely four years of raising children had made his husband more stable and less prone to ridiculous decisions, or had it?

Bai Yutong, in all his arrogant and spotless glory, did the most embarrassing thing he had ever done, or so Zhan Yao said upon reflection. First the whole room started to notice the sound of a jet, but thought nothing of it as they were near the private FBI airfield and there was an emergency landing pad on the roof, then a string of mixed Chinese and accented English drifted up the levels of the building, with soft bird like tones. The cat thought with a sprinkling of sarcasm, that a voice that boisterous, terribly bilingual, and booming could only belong to one person, his white mouse, and the birds were their first litter. He told himself he must be imagining things, hormonal hallucinations from his desire to go home.

Unfortunately, or possibly more fortunately, he was not hallucinating and the whole room was starting at his impeccably dressed husband and four children, each bearing a crockery of something delicious and to familiar to ignore, as a drop of drool slipped from his lips upon the smell of Bai Yutong's extra spicy lobster. He was rudely plucked from his aisle seat, while Cong gathered his monogrammed pen and notebook off the desk like a little angel, otherwise it may be forgotten and sold at a psychology auction. "Bai Yutong! Put me down and tell me what this intrusion is for, do you want this to become the next international sensation for the whole world to see? Bao Sir would have a heart attack if the police department received any bad publicity, including the chief of police disrupting a federal event to snatch his beloved.", Zhan Yao hissed in Cantonese, a language no one else knew in the room, he knew that much. 

"I, Bai Yutong, think that making the news is just what my Elder brother would approve of, he did marry Gongsun on live television and announced how much he loved him. I love my kitty, my children and our baby, and I do not care about telling the world, this is the way of the Bai family after all! We do not shy away from public affection, and now, I am taking you home to where we belong together.", Yutong replied confidently in his best English, as if he was not publicly showing their beautiful relationship to a bunch of professionals who would probably go to the nearest newspaper as soon as possible. He was helpless, and felt himself melt into the deep, musky scent of citrus and a new note of begonias he had not noticed in a while, because it only appeared when his husband was being territorial and possessive. Usually, Zhan Yao would scold him for being a pretentious prick and showing off in front of unfortunately single people with no mates to cuddle, but the food smelled really good and he was too tired to protest much. 

"Do not make a clown of yourself in front of my colleagues Yutong", he said very clearly in English for everyone to hear, and added in Cantonese, "Just take me and my luggage, and leave the proclamation of love for the press to announce back in china. Let the children be free of any part in this crackpot idea and then I want to eat your food in bed."

Bai Yutong successfully catnapped, fed and made Zhan Yao literally take a nap in the time it took for the plane to get back to where he had left the comfort of home. His pretty mommy kitty had told him that he did not want to stay in America any longer, giving the alpha that persuasively pitiful smile while he cuddled Chang, Cong, Gang and Jin to sleep after devouring three unfortunate lobsters. The caterpillar theory of how pregnancy worked was looking more and more truthful, as there could not be enough lobsters left considering that a lobster a day kept the cat's doctor away right now. He had a plane to fly either way he did the journey, so a straight trip to Hong Kong, to land on his brother's main company building a few hours away from their house was worth doing to save time. It also made A-Yao happy, and if he was happy, Yutong was happy, because life without Zhan Yao to love every day was awful, and from them on, every psychology conference became a family holiday.

Back in Hong Kong with Jintang and Gongsun…..

Jintang sleeping swatted his, or was that Gongsun's, alarm off and patted around for the one with the custom made leather case, a kind gift from his husband on the anniversary of their wedding. A message from his little brother's WeChat was one of two notifications on the screen, and when he had woken up enough to find the energy to open it, he saw a picture of his nephews, feline brother in law, and little brother tucked up in bed. Ah, he thought, Yutong finally took my advice and lost his sense of shame after years of perfect behaviour, seeing the article about how the chief of Hong Kong police caused a scene making the ultimate proclamation of love for his famous psychology doctor husband. Immediately, Bai Jintang was jealous, and slapped his own useless alpha awake, "Why do you not make the world know you love me like this? Every person with a phone or paper now knows about my little brother, but all you can do is have sex and snore at night!" 

Poor Gongsun had no idea why he was being slapped awake and lovingly abused, but it was probably best to let Jintang tell him after he had calmed down- oh, and do something ludicrous like have sex on Google maps to be internet famous like his bosses now were. That, and stop sleeping on his front so he did not snore so loudly, or sex might be withheld from him. Shuddering at the thought of no sex, Gongsun Ce checked how his abs looked in the mirror, tried to see when the google satellite next came by where they lived, and started ordering another royal blue dress for his sexy minx to wear and for him to tear, because he had a project to work on, one to trump Bai Yutong publicly screaming his love in front of American federal employees and accredited guest list. He would get caught having great sex on an international map satellite and everyone would see how much he loved Jintang.


End file.
